Police in India's capital detained multiple opposition lawmakers on Tuesday as they attempted to march toward the Election Commission headquarters, demanding the resignation of the country's chief election commissioner over a contentious nationwide voter roll revision.
Among those stopped were Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in India's lower house of parliament, along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other members of parliament. Security personnel intercepted the group midway through their march and forced them into police buses. The lawmakers were released shortly afterward, and they promptly resumed their demonstration, staging a sit-in near the Election Commission's office.
The confrontation marks the most recent flare-up in an escalating dispute over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a process that opposition parties contend could disproportionately benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. Both the BJP and the Election Commission have firmly denied these allegations.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjeet Sheoran told the BBC that officers were positioned at multiple locations along the route to prevent protesters from reaching the commission's building. "Some of the MPs tried to take some other roads to the Election Commission building," Sheoran explained, adding that those intercepted were transported to various police stations. Authorities did not reveal the exact number of lawmakers detained, though opposition figures claimed 237 MPs from multiple parties took part in the march.
The protest unfolded just four days after the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical online movement backed by Generation Z, organized demonstrations in Mumbai and Delhi with the same demand: the chief election commissioner's resignation. That group characterized its actions as the launch of a broader national campaign and has announced plans for additional protests on October 10.
At the heart of the controversy lies the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of voter lists. The initiative was launched in Bihar, an eastern state, in June 2025 and has since been extended to other regions across the country. According to the Election Commission, the exercise aims to eliminate duplicate and ineligible entries from electoral rolls. To date, more than 130 million names have been removed from draft voter lists nationwide.
Opposition parties and civil society activists argue that numerous legitimate voters have been incorrectly purged from the rolls and accuse the electoral body of mismanaging the process. Their concerns intensified following an investigative report by the Indian Express newspaper, which revealed that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised formal objections at least 14 times over a ten-month period. These objections reportedly concerned decisions and orders issued in the Election Commission's name without their prior knowledge or consent.
The reported objections encompassed a range of issues, including modifications to voter rolls, access to the voter database, and the security of electoral data. Some of these concerns were directly tied to the voter roll revision program, according to the newspaper's findings. The Election Commission, which operates as a three-member body consisting of the chief election commissioner and two additional commissioners, has defended its internal decision-making, stating that disagreements are a normal part of institutional operations and that final decisions were ultimately reached unanimously.
Nevertheless, the disclosures provoked significant political fallout, with opposition leaders amplifying their calls for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined three demands he described as "non-negotiable": Kumar's departure from office, the cancellation of the SIR exercise, and a return to paper ballot voting.
Rahul Gandhi took to social media to mock the election chief, writing: "Gyanesh, it's done, bro. Time to resign." The BJP, meanwhile, strongly condemned the protests. BJP MP Sambit Patra characterized the demonstrations as a "sponsored attempt" to effect a change in power through "anarchy." He further accused opposition parties of attempting to undermine constitutional institutions, including the Election Commission.
Security was significantly heightened around the Election Commission headquarters on Tuesday, with police erecting barricades along the route connecting parliament to the commission's office. The controversy has also reached India's Supreme Court, which has instructed both the federal government and the Election Commission to respond to a petition alleging that Kumar made critical decisions without obtaining approval from the two other election commissioners. The petition contends that Kumar exercised powers that properly belong to the commission collectively and seeks a judicial determination that such actions were unauthorized.
The court has indicated that Election Commission decisions must be reached either unanimously or through majority vote, and it suggested that any decisions found to have bypassed this requirement could be set aside. The legal challenge adds another dimension to an already fraught political standoff that touches on the integrity of India's electoral machinery and the independence of its constitutional bodies. With opposition parties vowing to continue their protests and the Supreme Court now involved, the dispute appears unlikely to subside in the near term.
(0)